the journal of a vintage clothing aficionado for roughwear,selvedge denim and overalls fanatics....

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

EARLY 1900'S OVERALLS......

Check out the overalls front row ......

Similar ones on this picture taken by L Hine around 1908......

Front of the overalls,note the single pocket ....

Single pocket on the backside too...

Selvedge .....

Only one button on the 7 " fly .....

Tool pocket along the right leg....

This pair is probably the oldest one in my collection .From my humble expertise ,i'll date them from the late to early 1900's very reminiscent of the early child labor pictures taken by the great Lewis Hine .no brand here ,just a crude single stich construction with basic hardware .For your eyes to enjoy as this baby just left the riveted's archives today ....times are tuff

In the 1900's ,as the US industrialized intensely, factory owners hired young workers for a variety of tasks and were often hired together with their parents, especially in textile mills. Many families in mill towns depended on the children's labor to make enough money to survive it was considered as a necessity .

The National Child Labor Committee,was formed in 1904 ,it was an organization dedicated to the abolition of all child labor. By publishing information on the lives and poor working conditions of young workers,the organisation helped to mobilize popular support for child labor laws at state level.In 1908, Lewis Wickes Hine an American sociologist and photographer,was hired by the NCLC.Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States. Over the next decade, Hine keep on documenting child labor in American industries to aid NCLC's lobbying efforts to end the child labor practice for good. These laws were often paired with education laws designed to keep children in school and out of the paid labor until a specified age, usually 12 to 16 years.

In 1916,two years after , the NCLC pressured the Congress to pass the first federal child labor law. However, the US Supreme Court struck down the law two years later , declaring that the law violated a child's right to contract his or her own labor [ what industrial tycoons will do to get their way right !!?...]. In 1924, Congress attempted to pass an amendment that would authorize a national child labor law. This measure was blocked, and the bill was eventually dropped[more pressure on congress].

It took the Great Depression to end child labor nationwide; adults had become so desperate for jobs that they would work for the same wage as children. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which, among other things, placed limits on many forms of child labor......

Great lesson in history. Much appreciated! And the effort to role back the clock to the 19th century is alive on the right. Last week a Republican state (Missouri) senator proposed eliminating child labor laws. The pre-FDR Supreme Court ruled laws against child labor, 8 hrs work days, minimum wage, and organized labor all unconstitutional.